The Medium Review: Perspective-shifting horror

I became a fan of Bloober Team after playing their first-person horror game called Observer: System Redux. I rate that game very highly mostly because of the haunting creativity that they were able to put on display, with slight regret over the latter half of the game. That second half suffered from a loss of thrust and dove into some gameplay tropes I did not enjoy, and which felt inconsistent with the rest of their design.

This, however, is not a review of that game, with the above paragraph serving as a backstory for my reasons for picking this game up, while also being an expectation-setter.

The main strengths of Bloober Team once again made themselves known immediately. Haunting art style, engaging premises, and interesting lore all made their presence felt right away.

Gameplay

The most interesting innovation brought forth by this Polish team is the dual-perspective gameplay used throughout the roughly 9 hour experience. The main character exists at the same time in two realms: a natural and a supernatural one.
Quite often puzzles or enemy encounters require you to actively switch between these two perspectives in order to progress, and the dichotomy between these two planes of existence is quite fascinating.

I found the ability to peer into two realms at the same time endlessly fascinating, and a pure joy whenever the game afforded me this opportunity.
Other than this superpower, you are generally powerless when pitted against the enemy. You can run and you can hide, but you cannot inflict any damage yourself, and nor can you really take any punishment, as the vast majority of enemy blows are fatal.

Taking this into account, the game is mostly a virtual hide and seek, which could easily overstay its welcome if overdone. Luckily, there are plenty of quiet moments and the game is just barely short enough to make these encounters not feel like a chore.

The World

This being such a short and linear game, it is no wonder that the fidelity on display is absolutely fantastic, especially when utilizing the hard-hitting Ray-Tracing features.

The materials and lighting are fantastic here, and overall the only gripe I have with this is the vintage way in which the world is shown through a static camera visor, rendering you unable to look everywhere and from every angle. I suspect the goal for this was tri-fold: paying homage to the heavy hitters from the past that utilized this technique, emphasizing horror through the lack of control given to the player, while also curating what the players see.

Narrative

The weakest part of the game is undoubtedly the story. It's generally a rather forgettable narrative about family, abuse, and trauma. Those topics sound very serious and you can definitely make some very interesting stories with these elements, but the way they are used here is rather unfulfilling and uninspired.

There are some significant revelations throughout it all, and they are sometimes expertly flushed out, but unfortunately, that does not diminish the fact that the entire thing is a bit too convoluted and undercooked.

Unfortunately, I cannot say anything more without going into outright spoilers so I will stop there.

Conclusion: Grade B+

A great-looking game with an interesting story and decent gameplay. Its design is very inspired and quite Horror-inducing. The story is overall quite serviceable through the 8-10h it takes to complete, however, the gameplay does sometimes drag. I suppose it could not really be avoided seeing the nature of the idea, but I'd have preferred fewer busy-work puzzles ( the most major one was the pump room manipulation puzzle).

I would recommend this for those who enjoy strongly art-driven games. I was often in awe of how things looked (it is not only the fidelity here, but also the overall design), and I think it's worth the play just for this alone.